2015 Vol. 1 No. 1:5 iMedPub Journals http://www.imedpub.com Research Article Journal of Health & Medical Economics ISSN 2471-9927 1 © Under License of Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License | This article is available in: http://health-medical-economics.imedpub.com/archive.php DOI: 10.21767/2471-9927.10005 Chialin Chang 1 , Wei-Chen Chen 2 , Michael McAleer 3,4 1. Department of Applied Economics, Department of Finance Economics, Natonal Chung Hsing University, Taiwan 2. Department of Applied Economics, Natonal Chung Hsing University, Taiwan 3. Department of Quanttatve Finance, Natonal Tsing Hua University, Taiwan 4. Econometric Insttute Erasmus, School of Economics, Erasmus University Roterdam, The Netherlands Corresponding Author: Chialin Chang Department of Applied Economics, Department of Finance Economics, Natonal Chung Hsing University, Taiwan  jialin.chang.nchu@gmail.com Tel: 88635715131 Citation: Chang C, Chen WC, Michael McAleer. Survival Analysis of Hospitalized Very Low Birth Weight Infant Mortality in Taiwan. J Health MedEcon. 2015, 1:1. Introducton The survival of newborns (or infants) is widely known to depend on innate genetc factors, the mother’s previous medical history, the mother’s health conditon during pregnancy, hospital of birth, postpartum medical conditons, and environmental health. Therefore, the survival rate of infants can be a direct measure of the health of mothers and infants, as well as an indirect measure of medical technology and environmental health. Based on the defniton of the World Health Organizaton (WHO), very low birth weight (VLBW) refers to a birth weight of less than 1500 g. Infants with minimal birth weights frequently sufer from serious complicatons of respiratory distress syndrome, neonatal intraventricular hemorrhage, necrotzing enterocolits, congenital heart disease, congenital malformatons, and retnal disease. Minimal birth weight infants are subject to treatments in the neonatal intensive care unit or neonatal intermediate unit, the cost of which can be a heavy fnancial burden for families. Before the introducton of the Taiwan Natonal Health Insurance scheme in 1995, there was a heavy economic and fnancial burden on families that had minimal birth weight infants. Afer the commencement of the Taiwan Natonal Health Insurance scheme, the economic and fnancial burden was lifed substantally for such families. Treatng infants is diferent from treatng adult patents. Establishing neonatology and providing physicians with appropriate medical equipment to care for infants indicates that the hospital has suitable quality for infant medical care. Previous studies have found that the establishment of a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) enhanced a hospital’s care-giving technology which, in turn, led to reduced deaths of infants and minimal birth weight infants. These studies also found positve correlatons among the occurrence of minimal birth weight infants, the number of neonatologists, and the number of beds in the NICU [1-3]. In additon to the above efects, the amount of surgery performed can also afect the mortality rate. Much of the literature is based on the complex surgery of coronary artery bypass to explore the relatonship between surgical volume Survival Analysis of Hospitalized Very Low Birth Weight Infant Mortality in Taiwan Abstract This paper examines the determinants of hospitalized very low birth weight infant (or neonatal) mortality using the Taiwan Natonal Health Insurance Research database from 1997 to 2009. Afer infants are discharged from hospital, it is not possible to track their mortality, so the Cox proportonal hazard model is used to analyze the very low birth weight infant mortality rate. In order to clarify treatment responsibility and to avoid selectve referral efects, we use the number of infants treated in the preceding fve years to observe the efect of a physician’s and hospital’s medical experience on the mortality rate of hospitalized minimal birth weight infants. The empirical results show that, given disease control variables, a higher infant weight, higher quality hospitals, increased hospital medical experience, and higher investment in pediatrics can reduce the mortality rate signifcantly. However, an increased physician’s medical experience does not seem to infuence signifcantly the very low birth weight infant mortality rate. Keywords: Very low birth weight; Neonatal mortality; Statstcal analysis; Cox proportonal hazard model; Selectve referral; Taiwan Natonal Health Insurance Scheme Received: August, 25 2015; Accepted: September, 25 2015; Published: October 15, 2015